Are We Crying Out to God Enough?

What is the appropriate response for believers to the chaos that is escalating all around us?

Turn off the news and isolate from the bad news

Lobby for a political candidate who will fix things

Complain about the situation on social media

Distract ourselves with entertainment

Move to Costa Rica

The prophet Jeremiah points us to the one thing needful (Lamentations 2:16-19):

(16) “All your enemies open their mouths against you; they hiss, they gnash their teeth, they cry: ‘We have devoured her! Ah, this is the day we longed for; at last we have seen it.'”This feels like our day. Every time we experience an “uncivilized” attack against the West, it is accompanied by maddening, vitriolic claims to victory.

(17)”The Lord has done what He purposed, He has carried out His threat; as He ordained long ago, He has demolished without pity; He has made the enemy rejoice over you and exalted the might of your foes.”This is happening under God’s control? Not only that, but by God’s initiative! “He has made” them gloat, and has “exalted the might” of their tactics? He is behind it all. Startling? But this means He can, and only He can, change its course.

(18-19) “Cry aloud to the Lord! O wall of daughter Zion! Let tears stream down like a torrent day and night! Give yourself no rest, your eyes no respite! Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the watches! Pour out your heart like water before the presence of the Lord! Lift your hands to him for the lives of your children.” When facing times of inordinate calamity, the call of God to His people is to pray. But this is so much more than saying a quick prayer before the evening meal, or listing “world peace” as you go down your prayer list. Jeremiah describes a brand of prayer that rends ones mind, heart and body to the Lord. Hands lifted, hearts poured out, from the rising of the sun to the late hours of the night. “Give yourself no rest, your eyes no respite.”

Hope for our world rests in the sovereign God, Who is at the helm of all of our circumstances, pouring out His mercy and grace on the nations. He answers to prayers of His people. So, we know that this is the one thing most needful in our day.

The world doesn’t know, believe or understand this … and will therefore never ask it of us. But they desperately need those who believe in the Most High God to pray, and to pray hard. We’re the ones who know the way out of our tragic international condition. Do we love the nations, our country, our families, and even ourselves enough to hit our knees?

May Lamentations 2:18-19 be a description of the church’s collective prayer life. And may God pour out fresh mercies on us, and on the nations.

– EO

I’m not praying like this. I need to.

And what if the Lord answers this type of collective wailing with an outpouring of His mercy and grace?

so commit themselves to intercessory prayer that they are physically spent –